Feinstein Admitted That Democrats Aren't Considering Gorsuch's Record

In conformity with the ethical requirements for judges, he refused to bind himself to how he would rule on future cases, prompting Mrs. Feinstein to lament: “How do we have confidence in you that you won’t be just for the big corporations? That you will be for the little men? … I’m just looking for something that would indicate that you would give a worker a fair shot, maybe it is in your background somewhere that I don’t know about, but I’d like to have you respond to it any way you can.” . . .

Judge Gorsuch thanked Mrs. Feinstein for the opportunity to correct the presentation of his judicial record, noting that he had participated in more than 2,700 opinions in over 10 years on the federal bench and Democratic senators had selected just a few to focus on that do “not represent the body of my work.” He has, as he pointed out, ruled for both big corporate and “little guy” parties, depending on the law applicable in that case. . . . Then he listed 13 cases in which he ruled for . . . “little guys.”

Mrs. Feinstein’s response was astounding: “That’s helpful. We’ll find them and read them.” Think about what that means.

In the seven weeks since President Trump announced Judge Gorsuch as his nominee to Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court, Mrs. Feinstein and her staff have not bothered to thoroughly research or review the judge’s extensive record. . . . Instead of engaging in a meaningful review of the nominee and his qualifications, the senator and her staff have been content to rely on the talking points given to them by radically progressive groups whose only goal is to oppose Mr. Trump, Republicans and conservative principles in any and every way possible.

This was typical of the Democrats' approach throughout the hearing, in which they either focused on the outcomes (and rarely the legal reasoning) of a small handful of cases cherrypicked from his extensive judicial record or attempted to have him unethically bind himself on future cases or express political views. Instead of engaging in a genuine inquiry into Judge Gorsuch's legal philosophy and interpretative methods, they chose (with a handful of notable exceptions) to simply repeat progressive talking points that voters showed they were tired of last fall.

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